Celexa

I started taking Celexa 20mg (generic citalopram, its a lot cheaper) The first week of August this year. I was diagnosed with Major Depression and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I take it once a day at night (with food to diminish any possible gastrointestinal side effects). I am feeling 100% better than I did just a few months ago. I could not be more satisfied with the outcome. Before, I could not sleep or focus on anything. I was nauseas and exhausted all of the time and I even felt so dizzy I couldnt drive or go to class. I am now falling asleep without the help of sleep-aids. I have energy again; I no longer sleep 8 hours and wake up feeling more exhausted than I did the night before. FOR ME this was the correct medication. NO MEDICATION IS CORRECT FOR EVERYONE. There are several negative reviews from individuals; take them with a grain of salt. Yes, the first week can be miserable on a new anti-depressant (you have serotonin receptors all over your body, including your brain, blood vessels and stomach. While your body is adjusting to the new levels of serotonin, you will probably feel nauseas and have a headache). You have to be patient though! After a week I could feel a difference, and after a month I felt great. I feel like my old self again. The only downside I can find with the drug is that I cannot drink AT ALL on this drug. As with most SSRIs, alcohol renders the medication ineffective because Alcohol occupies the same receptors in your body. Massive panic attacks came for an entire week after drinking moderately. I would happily give up alcohol for the rest of my life to NEVER feel the depression and anxiety ever again though. There are also sexual side effects, but for me they have been positive. I can now maintain an erection and have a healthy sex life. I also have no problem with having orgasms. Do not rule out any drug because of the reviews on here. Eventually, you WILL find the right drug for you :). HANG IN THERE!!

Depression runs in my family on both sides. I never knew I was truly depressed until in my late 20's my mother told me that she no longer enjoyed our conversations because I was always such a "downer". My mother and I are very close and I decided right then and there to do something about it. Zoloft and Prozac did nothing. Effexor made me extremely sick to my stomach. Was on Paxil for quite a while until I met my husband and wanted him to know that my lack of sex drive was not related to him. Wellbutrin put me in such a fog I walked around like a zombie, could not control my extremities and felt like my head was floating above my body. Along came Lexapro and I was saved!! Something finally worked well with my body chemistry(an my mother's as well) and didn't cause me strange side effects!! Being that my insurance did not cover it, my doctor put me on Celexa (Lexapro's cousin) and I have never looked back. I do not "hide out" or avoid social situations as much as I used to. I laugh and love to make people laugh. People that I confide in about taking an antidepresant can not believe that I actually NEED this. That is how much this has helped me. Lastly, the only side effect I get is if I forget to take it for a few days I will cry at the drop of a hat. I will feel like crying over ANYTHING when I skip a dose/doses. It is then I know I am off my routine... but no other side effects. Hope this helps someone else.

Week 1- tired, nausea, loss of appetite , foggy feeling. Week 2- same plus sweats and insomnia . Week 3 - GERD. Week 4- all symptoms started to disappear. I almost quit in week 2 but my Dr. Said keep going , I am glad I did. Sometimes good things are worth the wait. I have energy, lost 8 lbs. feel better than I have in many years. I have tried Prozac, lexapro , Effexor , Wellbutrin , Paxil, pristique, and others. This has been by far the best. I take for depression losing both parents in 1 month I was losing it. Good luck to all:)

I am on 40mg Celexa - (for a month) it has worked great. Increased energy, no more mood swings, not so uptight and shy anymore. Sex is GREAT now, use to not be interested. I was very snappy and irratable with husband and kids - no more - things don't bother me much anymore. I am so much more relaxed, and have lost 10 pounds in a month.

I can't even describe how much Celexa helped me. Now I am able to get my life back together. NO side effect. Only the first 2 weeks while the medicine was adjusting in my system my libido was low...now I crave sex like never before, and sex is amazing! Feels better than before. Maybe the fact that I am more active, taking long walks, eating healthy, has helped me skip all those side effects that everyone talks about. If you start on this medication I recommend to ALL to adjust your lifestyle as well. Go outside! Enjoy the sun! Exercise..Help yourself, don't expect the medicine to do it all for you. You need to put something for yourself too! This medicine was the tool for me to get my life going again. I am back to who I was 15 years ago.

Had a bad year in 2007. Began abusing alcohol to cover up anxiety/depression. Lost control of emotions with love of my life. Started on 20mg. It has only been a week but can feel a powerful difference. No more alcohol cravings-Trust me-Do Not Drink while on this stuff. It's crazy. Cures anxiety. Depression lifts but ambition decreases. Strange sexual side affects. Definite decrease in sex drive, but get sudden unexpected sexual urges. Gives you peace, but you quit caring about people quite as much. I became introspective and clear headed. I think other people are hilarious now. They seem like a joke to me. Before I felt the joke was on me. Never believed in medication, but you can feel this stuff reorganize your brain.Does not alleviate heartbreak though. Wish I started it sooner.

I have suffered from depression and anxiety (most especially the latter) for a good portion of my life, but the last few months has been the worst bout of depression I have ever experienced. Some years ago, I took Paxil, and it gave me the worst stomach pain and temporary restless leg syndrome, which was the most bizarre experience. I was afraid to try another anti-depressant after my past experience, but I couldn't get out of the hole I was in, which just kept getting deeper and deeper. It was to the point where when Robin Williams ended his life, I kept wishing it were me instead. I went to my doctor because I had been battling sickness after sickness (strep throat, cold, flu, etc.) for several months, and told her about the funk I was in. She told me that depression actually suppresses one's immune system, which would explain why I kept getting sick, so she prescribed Celexa, stating it may help to bring me out of the depths I had been in for so long. I was hesitant. I resisted for a couple of weeks. But after the worst bout of crying and suicidal thoughts I'd had since this started, I decided to take half a pill (5mg). I had a headache the next day, but not terrible. Took another 5mg the next day, then upped it to the prescribed dose of 10mg. I've been taking it for two weeks, and let me tell you, I haven't felt this "normal" in months... maybe years. I have the occasional bout of nausea, but not terrible, and a headache every so often, but save that, it's been a miracle. I don't plan on being on them forever, just until I feel like I can handle life on my own again. However, I would recommend them to anyone who is suffering from what feels like Hell on Earth. They work. They work fast. I can smile. I can laugh. I don't feel nervous or terribly sad. I feel like me. And that feels so good.

I have been taking Celexa for about 8 months now. I began taking it for general anxiety/depression. It is amazing. I have never felt better. It has quieted my mind, took away the anxiety and negative self-talk that owned me for so long, and has made me more confident and focused than ever before. The first night I took it, I felt an immediate difference the next day. I felt a sense of calm and my mind was quiet. After about a week, my wife noticed a total difference in me. After the next few months, it just got better and better. I have had no serious side effects as others have mentioned. The only thing I have noticed is that I am a bit more sensitive to alcohol. That's not a big deal to me though at all. I had slightly more vivid dreams for a couple of months but that went away. I have always taken it at night based on the doctor's recommendation and have had no issues. Give it time. My doctor said it takes a few months to fully feel the full effects. She is absolutely right based on my experience. It's an awesome drug. Give it a chance if you feel you may need it, it might change your life. I am a better husband and father for it.

I have lost both my parents, my husband and a best friend in the last 18 months to death. I have no more family. I decided to go 6 months ago just before I lost my husband and get some help. I was in counseling and it was helping but I was tired of crying all the time and so much mood swings. My body couldn't handle all that I was going through and finally my "little ball of sunshine" outlook went with it. Now that I have been on them so long I feel happy and I can smile again. Time is the only thing that really can heal you but a little help isn't bad along the way. If you are thinking about taking the pill like I was. Do it. It will make you feel better.

It was hard for me to admit I had mild depression and even more difficult for me to begin taking medication for it. I always felt like I should be able to control how I feel. I never felt suicidal, just blah and negative, so I admitted I could feel better and gave in to taking the medication and went to 3 counseling sessions, mainly to accept my depression. It has been a very positive experience for me and the medication has been working. I take 40mg 1x/day and I feel more positive about my life and my interactions with people. I had mild side effects for the first month, dry mouth, yawning, decreased sexual desire, but they went away. I now believe depression is an inbalance of chemicals in the brain because after taking Celexa, my thinking changed. I tried to change it on my own to be more positive, but it always felt like something was blocking me. I have now realized and accepted I have mild depression, and that is what was blocking me and I don't have the power to control it, and it's ok to get help with it.

This year I've been battling depression and anxiety after my baby was born premature and died. Also have post traumatic stress. Marriage failed too. Wasn't sleeping at night waking up in the middle of the night with panic attacks. Filled with anger after marraige ended. Decided to seek help and talked to Dr. Prescribed 20 mg of Celexa. It started working after 5 days. Cured my anxiety and panic attacks. I'm able to sleep better. I'm still sad but just dealing with grief. I need to feel it and get through it. Im in therapy and meditate everyday. Healing and getting help with Celexa. Been on this drug for 1 month.

Have been struggling with a severe case of depression for sometime, to the point where I have had sucidial thoughts and basically do not see the point in living...Finally accepted that I needed to seek professional help. Have tried Lexapro, Effexor and Wellbutrin in the past for a very short time frame, all 3 gave me excrutiating headaches so I stopped taking them, not to mention severe anxiety and a general "weirded out" feeling. Have been taking Celexa 10mg for about 3 weeks now. I can tell you that I have not had headaches with the 10mg. My doctor wants to bump me up slowly to 20 or 40 mg, however, when I took 15mg, the headache was unbearable. My doctor suggested that I take it with two tylenols, which so far has been helpful. Haven't noticed a huge improvement in the depression, but I would say I am hopeful. Also, after reading some reviews, I started taking Celexa at night, so I am not groggy durig the day. As a side note, I am also someone who eats very healthy, works out daily and has a lot of family support. Thus, I hope that I will be able to be on Celexa long enough to dig out of what I like to call my depression, "the black hole". Trust me, if you are sensitive to medications in general, especially AntiDepressants, Celexa may work for you. I pray that someone reads this and find it helpful!!

I've been using generic Celexa for 12 years and it has made all the difference for me. Tried Paxil and it did not work- slept all day, so don't give up after trying one antidepressant. All people are different.

I started taking Celexa in the AM because it has a tendency to keep me up at night. I have taken it for about 5 years after trying Paxil and Zoloft both of which had horrible side effects (paxil left me with dry heaves) and zoloft left me too spacey. I would recommend backing off on caffeine if you are taking Celexa in the AM because it gives you a boost and you may feel spacey if you have caffeine along with it. As with any drug, side effects seems worse at first but all of mine on Celexa went away after consistently taking it. I was nauseated at first but after my body got used to the AM routine it went away. Consistency with taking Celexa at the same time every day is what will help you notice a big differece. Like I said, PM doses keep me awake still, but it had no effect on weight, skin, sex drive, or ability to process thought (its actually helped me in all of those areas!)

PLEASE REMEMBER: Medications and their effects vary from PERSON-TO-PERSON. I have suffered from various degrees of of depression for 24 years and have tried many medications (and combinations) for it and anxiety. Three days after beginning a 20mg dose my life has changed. My snap anger was diminished (if not gone), the everyday irritations became tolerable, and I found happiness in day-to-day life again. 12 days later I bumped up to 40mg as the doctor had recommended after a few bouts of mild irritability that seemed to remain. Side-effects for me are very mild. I do have to take in the morning so that it does not keep me awake, other than that all else seems fine. I wish everyone luck in their struggles. I hope that you each find the inner peace that you deserve.

I am 46yrs old, a wife, a mother of 3 and a grandmother of 4. Before taking celexa I was very depressed and angry. I started out at 10mg and am now at 40mg. I have been taking medication for 3 months now. I feel like a new person. I couldn't listen to music, watch t.v or cope with my children and grandchildren leaving after wonderful visit. I had outbursts of anger and vengence consumed me. I am 90% back to normal. I have had no sexual side effects in fact I am better in that area. I feel normal now. I have told several friends about my miracle drug and I thank God and my doctor for this. Hold strong and all will be ok.

I took this medication for about 3 months to treat my anxiety and depression. The first two months I had a lot of nausea always about 1 hour after taking celexa, however, it worked amazing to relieve my anxiety and depression. For the first time in years, I was able to relax and was happy. After the second month though, I just began to feel numb. I didn't care about anything. Things that used to upset me no longer did, but things that used to make me smile didn't affect me either. But my depression prior was severe, so I stayed on it and focused on learning about myself and how unreasonable it is to feel unnecessary anxiety leading to depression. And things were better. The reason I stopped taking celexa is because it caused SEVERE MEMORY LOSS. It started small. I couldn't remember what happened yesterday. Then, after month two, I couldn't remember conversations people would tell me I had with them. And at the end of month three, I was standing in front of a desk somewhere (I don't even remember where I was) with a woman in front of me asking me what my name was. I stared blankly at her. I couldn't remember. I apologized and had to pull out my wallet and look at my drivers license to remember my middle name. I then began researching the drug and discovered that memory loss is a common side affect. I immediately stopped taking it, but it still took me about 3 months for my memory to return to normal. But on a positive note, it feels back to normal now (about 1 year later) I apologized to my friends and let them know what I was going through, and surprisingly, one of my friends who I've known to have memory problems told me that he was taking the same medication. He ended up cutting his dose in half afterwards and noticed an improvement in memory. I still recommend it as a relief from the pit of anxiety and depression, so you can understand how life should feel, but I would never recommend it long term. Use the time on it to learn how to live.

I have suffered with depression for many years. I had tried approx 6-7 other AD's, but to no avail. Some AD's did nothing to lessen the feelings of despair while some just seemed to worsen my condition. With this in mind, I resigned myself to the fact that I must continue to suffer the rest of my life,with this debilitating disease. Approx. 3 1/2 weeks ago, I relented and had asked my Dr. if I could try-(after 5 years of suffering w/o any meds), "Celexa". He agreed and put me on 20mg, 1x day. In the first week,I could feel a difference, a positive difference. 3 weeks later, Celexa has made a significant change with not only how I feel but also, my outlook on life.I can only conclude,that not only have I found "the one"-(Celexa), but with the help of your "readers reviews" and their experiences while using this drug, I have a renewed outlook on life, and freedom for the first time from horrible and debilitating disease! I often would say, "how much more can one endure"?! Well, no more. There is indeed, light at the end of the tunnel! Thank you readers and Good Luck to all!

I have tried 2 other depression medications and this one has been by the far the best. I wish I would have made an appointment earlier when I noticed my depression, anxiety, and irritability creeping up on me again. I started taking this medication about 2 months ago and I have no side effects other than being HAPPY, and feeling NORMAL again. The first couple of days my stomach was a little upset but once I drank a lot of fluids with the medication I have not had a problem. I know medications are different for everyone but want to share that I have had a great experience with it.

My wife has been on Celexa since 2004 and it helped with her depression till about 2008. She was started on 20 mgs then 40,then 50, then 60 and he wanted to take her to 80! About 1 1/2 years ago I notice a change in her behavior. My wife of 47 years was getting more distant and showed little or no affection. Our relations are 0 now and we had always had a very affectionate and warm relationship, and that was gone. The day it came to a head I put my arms around her in the kitchen one morning to give her a hug and she stood there like she was a robot with no feeling. It hit me so hard for the rest of that day I though I would die of a broken heart. This is when I started to to use Web MD to look into the meds that she was taking and found our what was going on because of the Celexa. I talked to her Psychiatrist and he told me in so may words it wasn't any of my business and my wife was his patient. "What the heck about our marriage"? I trusted these doctors and I feel they have made a bigger mess of my wife then when she started her treatment for depression. I am glad after we had talked the doctor has changed her to Lexapro with Wellbutrin and the fog seems to be lifting, but she has a long way to go to get back to her normal self. I feel that before our spouses are put on these medications the family members need to be brought in, and helped to understand what they need to do to be the support structure for the depressed member. If the member getting the help loses the love and support of the spouse it will make things much worse for the for the marriage an relationship. I would like to see the family member have several sections together and maybe work through the depression if possible before the SSRI medications are prescribed, I feel that the patient becomes addicted to these medications. I love my wife very much after all of these years and I wish I would have been included with the therapy that she was being prescribed and not pushed on the side.

I was on wellbutrin for 3 years. It worked pretty well but gave me moments of feeling raged or angry. I am a mom of three so I didnt need that. I got off it and did well for a month. Then it slowly came crashing down to where I couldnteven get out of bed. My dr put me on celexa 20 mg. I took half a pill for a week and then the whole pill. I took it at night becuse the first day it made me too sleepy to take in the am. I feel like my body is alive again. It doesnt make me feel like a zombie and I love to laugh again. I am so thankful that this med gave me emergy and my zest for life back. I dont think I will ever get off it! It has been 1 month but I felt a huge difference in a couple days.

This medication is a life saver. I had quit taking it for about 4 months & my depression came back full board. After resuming treatment, I was balanced after about 6-8 weeks. No side effects whatsoever.

I have been on Celexa for over a year and I love it. I have stress induced depression which is work related; I have since quit that particular job! My experience has been truly awesome, it stopped my compulsion to "comfort eating", and the weight came off like water. I haven't had any outbursts other than what has truly made me mad!! Everyday living is normal, my family noticed a change within 2 weeks. They tell me I'm a joy to be around now. It has improved my relationship with my family, we can now just sit a talk. No more yelling, crying, and stomping around. Wish I had this when I was in High School!! Life would have been a lot easier for all of us.

i have only been on celexa for about 3 weeks the first week and a half i was tired,yawned all the time, i sweat bad, nasuse it was bad but now all that has gone away and i love it i don't yell at my kids and hubbie like i used to they like that also so stick it out for a few weeks and see if the side effects go away you'll proble like the results i did.

Was diagnosed with depression almost 10 years ago. After trying several medications celesta finally lifted me out of the depths of depression with fewer side effects. felt so much better after being on this med for a while I decided to wean myself off it..bad move as I experienced such a bad relapse of severe depression, I thought I would never feel better again. I went back on this med and finally 6 mos later I am feeling better again. Be careful about going off your meds without doc supervision, it was a lot harder for me to feel better after relapse. One thing for sure celesta is the med for me!